NCCnovel Chapter 346 Tanks are also cars
Chapter 346 Tanks are also cars
Wang Huaibao covered his feet and looked at the Japanese aircraft and aviation division planes fighting each other in the sky, and he knew that the Japanese were not going to run away today!
As expected, except for four or five that escaped, the rest of the planes were shot down by the aviation division, and the aviation division suffered no losses.
Wang Meng waved his fists vigorously and was in a very good mood.
"Good! Good! Good! We need to commend the Aviation Division! They fought so well even though they were divided into two groups! They are all heroes!"
The brothers of the aviation division seemed to understand what he meant. They flew over Taiyuan City, fired at the top of the city wall, cleared out the remaining ammunition, and then reluctantly went back.
Without the threat of Japanese aircraft, the 4th Armored Division continued to advance and captured Da'an Mountain and Xiao'an Mountain before dark.
The artillery division immediately built artillery positions on the mountain, blatantly preparing to bombard Taiyuan City and the Xiaoyaotou position at the east gate!
Two heavy howitzer regiments and 30 150mm howitzers were deployed on Da'an Mountain.
There are two light howitzer regiments with 90 105mm howitzers on Xiaozhao Mountain.
On the small hill in the middle of the mountain, an anti-aircraft artillery regiment with 90 37mm anti-aircraft guns was deployed.
At around eight o'clock in the evening, Wang Meng and Ding Wei inspected the 4th Armored Division which was resting at the foot of Da'an Mountain.
"Old Ding, you suffered a lot of losses today? Should we give the task of attacking Taiyuan to Kong Jie?"
Old Ding was immediately unhappy.
"Chief of Staff, this is just the beginning! Our Fourth Division has fought much tougher battles than this one! Today we only lost a few tanks and a dozen armored vehicles! However, we wiped out a battalion of Japanese soldiers and more than 4,000 puppet troops!"
Ding Wei didn't stop there. He climbed onto the armored vehicle and stood on the front of the vehicle.
"Comrades, the Chief of Staff just told me that our Fourth Division has suffered some losses, and asked if we should give the opportunity to attack Taiyuan to the Fifth Division. Do you agree?"
"I don't agree! I don't agree! I don't agree!"
Wang Meng waved helplessly at Ding Wei, signaling him to come down.
"No, I won't come down unless you give me a definite answer!"
"Okay, okay, your Fourth Division must still lead the attack, but you must keep casualties to a minimum!"
There was a burst of applause all around.
Wang Meng said goodbye to Ding Wei and found the artillery division's headquarters on the hillside.
"Soldier, where is your division commander?"
"Reporting to the Chief of Staff, Mayor Wang has gone to the heavy howitzer position!"
Wang Meng found the heavy howitzer position and saw Wang Huaibao checking the maintenance and cleaning of the howitzer. His actions were more intimate than touching his own wife.
"Old Wang, what are you touching?"
Wang Huaibao, who was concentrating fully on the task, was frightened and slapped his chest.
"Chief of Staff, you're scaring me to death!"
Wang Huaibao stood up and pointed at the 150mm howitzer.
"Chief of Staff, this big thing is really useful, much better than our 105mm howitzer!"
Wang Meng pointed his finger at Wang Huaibao.
"You are a guy who gets bored easily. Now that you have a 150mm howitzer, you don't want the 105 anymore? Then hand over the 105mm howitzer regiment to me, and I guarantee that Ding Wei will sleep with his arms around the gun barrel every day!"
Wang Huaibao quickly grabbed Wang Meng's hand and slapped himself twice in the face.
"No, no, no, I said the wrong thing! How could I, such an honest person, be fickle?"
"Let me ask you, why do you want to set up your command post so close? If the Japanese accidentally hit the heavy artillery position with a cannon, then even if your command post is not blown up to the sky, it will be buried in the ground!"
Wang Huaibao scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly and touched the gun barrel.
"Chief of Staff, we are used to living in poverty. We finally got a little heirloom, so naturally we have to sleep with it in our arms every day! If we can't see or hear it at night, we won't be able to sleep well!"
"Hahaha, by the way, how did your artillery scouts get in?"
"Hehe, it was only after reading the Linfen battle summary that I thought of arranging a few artillery scouts to sneak in in advance. Fortunately, they sneaked in, otherwise we wouldn't even know where the Japanese artillery is!"
Wang Meng looked at Wang Huaibao with approval. This boy was worthy of being a division commander as he could learn and apply what he had learned so quickly.
"Then tell me about the disadvantages of this 150mm howitzer? I don't need to mention its advantages!"
Wang Huaibao pondered for a moment and had the answer in his mind.
"Chief of Staff, there must be something fishy going on here, right? Will you take them all back after I say this?"
"Just say what I ask you to say. I'm just testing you to see if you can really study the weapon in your hand seriously!"
"Okay, let me talk about two points first. The first is the range issue. We also used improved artillery shells, but the maximum range is only 15 kilometers. When a large army is fighting, it is not conducive to fire support. Especially when the armored forces are advancing rapidly, we have just set up our artillery, and they have already run out of the range of our artillery support?"
"Well, tell me the second point!"
"Another problem is also related to the rapid advance of the armored forces. Our 150mm howitzer weighs five tons and has no suspension structure. When it is towed by a tractor, the speed is a bit slow!"
Wang Meng now looked at Wang Huaibao with new eyes. This 150mm howitzer was modeled after the German SFH 150mm howitzer.
This type of artillery accompanied the German Army in its campaigns across Europe and is an evergreen of the German Army.
However, the two shortcomings mentioned by Wang Huaibao are indeed real problems, which are shortcomings summarized by later generations.
"Lao Wang, what do you think if there is a cannon mounted on the car, and you can stop and fire at any time?"
Wang Huaibao used his brain and combined the artillery and trucks together in his mind.
"Commander, but can the truck withstand the recoil of a 150mm howitzer?"
"I'm telling you, tanks are also cars!"
After Wang Meng finished speaking, he left in a mysterious manner.
In his mind, Wang Huaibao combined the tank chassis with the 150mm howitzer, which made it look much more harmonious!
"Yes! Chief of Staff, when can we have a discussion?"
When Wang Huaibao looked up, there was no trace of Wang Meng.
However, this is like a seed that has taken root and sprouted in Wang Huaibao's heart, and will grow into a towering tree in the future.
Wang Meng strolled around and sent the day's battle situation to Zhao Gang and Li Yunlong so that they could have a clear idea of it.
In Yangquan, a hundred kilometers away, Li Yunlong became more and more uneasy the longer he stayed there. He never expected that the Japanese in Shijiazhuang and Yangquan were silent.
Seeing that Taiyuan was under siege, shouldn't they have sent troops to rescue it quickly? What on earth were they waiting for?
Li Yunlong sent a telegram for help to the old brigade commander, asking him to use the Eighth Route Army's intelligence network to collect information from Shijiazhuang and Handan.
But the old brigade commander replied:
"All underground personnel in Shijiazhuang have lost contact today!"